How to begin?

Before even downloading the GeMA application, an important conceptual distinction must be made:

• The GeMA application is a simple command line program that can be used to run multiphysics simulations. It also serves as a test application for the GeMA framework. Its intended audience are engineers, or any other end users with knowledge about the target simulation, who want to create their own models, or parameterize existing ones, and execute a simulation, obtaining numerical results.

• The GeMA framework is a C++ library intended to support the development of new multiphysics simulators. Its intended audience are programmers and engineers with a programming background.

Starting with the GeMA application

To quickly begin creating new models and running GeMA simulations, start by following the three steps below:

1. Download and install the GeMA application
2. Read the tutorial on Building a simulation model. This tutorial is important not only for presenting how to create a simulation model, but also for explaining the basic GeMA concepts.
3. Follow and execute the examples in the "Tutorial examples" section from the Examples page.

This three steps should present the needed knowledge to start creating new models and to understand the structure of any GeMA simulation. The other examples in the Examples page are a good source of additional material. Another source is the Reference Manual. It covers the complete syntax and options of the objects that together form a GeMA simulation and all the available functions and processes that can be used on the orchestration script.

Starting with the Gema framework

Before trying to exetend the framework, be sure to gain some experience on creating and running GeMA simulations by following the steps from the previous section. The next step is to download the code. The Tutorials page presents several documents explaining how to compile the code and run regression tests to check whether the compilation was successful. Also, be sure to check the coding guidleines and project organization tutorial before venturing on creating new plugins or even extending the core library itself.